Vehicular parking installation



Sept. 16, 1952 w. P. BROWER ETAL 2,610,364

VEHICULAR PARKING INSTALLATION Filed Dec. 11, 1948 4 Sheets-Sheet l FIG. I

F J J 2 y 1'0 1'5 11" fi 2i "*P L7 L "111:2 I

.14 13 14 FIG 3 ATTORNEYS Sept. 16, 1952 w. 1 1 BRO ER EI'AL 2,610,364

VEHICULAR PARKING INSTALLATION Filed Dec. 11, 1948 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 FIG. 5

ELM-MA -M- ATTORNEYS 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 v w 1 q 5 L H L 1 1 1 1L ii Sept. 16, 1-952 w. P. BROWER ETAL VEHICULAR PARKING INSTALLATION Filed Dec. 11, 1948 of a further modification in which parking surfaces are horizontal.

Fig. 1 shows a highway or city street l0 con nected by approaches ll to-a parking installation 12 constructed in accordance with the invention. This installation comprises a series of parallel roadways I 3 and I4 which are spaced apart from centerline to centerline by a distance A approximately equal to the width of one road .way plus the length of a vehicle to be parked. access road constructed at right angles to'the roadways l3, 14 connects with each of them-and with the approaches ll so that a vehide from the street may be driven into any one of the roadways.

' -Turning now to the sectional view of the installation shown in Fig. 2, it is seen that a lowerlevel parking strip I6 adjoins each'side of each alternate roadway I3. The parking strips l6 extend substantially the full length of the roadways they adjoin, and slope laterally downwardly therefrom at an angle of about 12 to a horizontal plane indicated by the line L. These lower-level parking strips are easily formed by *simply regrading the ground from its original horizontal grade line L. The material excavated informing the, downwardly dipping parking strips l6'is used to build up the roadways l3 and {4 above the original grade line. .,-strips |6 are of a width substantially equal to The parking the length of a vehicle to be parked, so that any such vehicle maybe driven along a roadway I3 etoan unoccupied portion of a lower-level parking strip and may then be turned from it and parked on the parking. strip at a right angle to the length of .the roadway in a row with other parked vehicles.

l6 adjoiningeach alternate roadway I 3 terminate falong lines underlying the side edges of the ad- .jacent. (intervening) roadways l4, as of course The lower-level parking strips they must with the roadways spaced apart the distance specified and with the parking strips being of the width specified.

, In order to provide, for parking vehicles along the sides of the intervening roadways M, a pair of upper-level parking strips [1 adjoins the side edges of each of these roadways.

The upperlevel parking strips I! are inclined upwardly "from the roadways M at an angle of about 12 to the horizontal, and directly overlie the lowerlevel parking strips IS. The upper-level parking strips may be reinforced concrete platforms as shown in Fig. 2, supported at their outer edges on concrete columns [8, although of course other structural materials and arrangements may be used in'their construction. "Because of the lateral inclination of the park ing strips l6 and I! to the horizontal, they are spaced apart vertically by adistance greater than the height of a vehicle to be parked (e. g. an

automobile l9). An inclination of about 12 to the horizontal is particularly advantageous be- 'cause it results (with the roadway 'centerlines all lying substantially in a common plane) .in

the necessary vertical spacing of the upper-level from the lower-level parking strips for vehicles having the ratio of length to height that characterizes most automobiles now in use. For example, with this degree of inclination, and with roadways and. parking stripseach about twenty feet in width, a clear space of six to seven feet between upper and lower parking levels is achieved with the parking strips dipping laterally at an angle of aboutv 12 to the horizontal. Automobiles can be maneuvered without great difficulty to and from parking strips inclined to this degree.

The complete parking installation generally includes retaining walls 20 to support the roadways l4 "from which'the upper-level parking strips are served. Drains 2| are provided at the low side edges of the lower-level parking strips [6 to carry away rain water and melted snow, and a similar grating-covered storm drain may be provided along the centerline of the roadways I4, A guard wall 22 is provided along the outer side edge or. each. of the upper-level parking strips I! where it overlies the side edges of the neighboring roadways l3. All roadways and the lower-level parking strips may be surfaced with concrete or macadam as indicated in Fig. 2.

It is evident that the parking installation just described about doubles the parked-vehicle capacity of a given plot of ground, for the vehicles are parked in two levels one above the other. This result is attained largely by regrading the ground. The only construction necessary is in the building of the upper-level parking strips and their supporting piers, and such retaining walls as may be necessary. Such construction is very much less expensive than would be re,

quired to build a two-story parking garage,'which is the only way heretofore known for achieving equal parking capacity on a given ground area.

It has been mentioned above that parking installations according to the invention are admirably suited for adaptation to hillside plots such as have heretofore been considered unsuitable forparking purposes; A hillside parking installation in accordance withthe invention is shown in Figs. 3 and 4. Here a'highway or street 25 is connected by an approach 26 to an access road 21 forming a part of the hillside parking'installation 28. The access road connects with each of a series of roadways 29 extending from it at right angles.

The construction of the parking installation 28 is perhaps most clearly seen by referring to the vertical section shown in Fig. l. The hillside plot is regraded from its original sloping ground line S by making cuts into the hillside V to form a seriesof lower-level parking strips 30. The width of these strips is about equal to the length of a vehicle to be parked. The material excavated from these cuts is used in constructing the horizontal roadways 29. Thus there are formed a series of horizontal terraces spaced apart from roadway centerline to roadway centerline by the distance A (Fig. 3) equal approximately to the width of one roadway plus the length of a vehicle to be parked. The roadways are constructed so that their centerlines lie horizontally and all in a common plane that is parallel to the original grade slope of the hillside (indicated by the line S); and the angle between this, common plane and the plane of each roadway surface 29 and lower-level parking strip 39 is advantageously about 12. This is. equivalentrto inclining the roadway 29 and the lower-level parking strip. 30 laterally at an .raanglez-zl2f3.atoethlthorinmnataliinktliiezcaseMa aris- .1:zlng instailation.zbuiltiomhorimal ground;

' fio;.:.achiey.e;the:inoreased .ennit bh'gmunrL-area.itbatvicharaetenizesrtheinmentionnan upneralevejteparkinsistrin 3-.l; eleya-.ted 1 1.oonstmetedgalo ng.:theiside imitationroadway; e19;-g.opp1esite.-:theesideadieinin '2atheiieut by;whichftheelowereleveh 'paid in astmp rovided. =..1-In .the-.ieonstmction-.shownin illowereleyel parkins. strips-All so .that vehicles-Lars "marked one .abonethe otheraandthei-same-reconv.on1y..in.:us e.. .oi.the :groundareasisoachieyedizas ainithe ease .of. the. parking. instal1atienshown .in.Ei gs.1.and.2. I v

when. the ,.-slop; .on thehillside. isnabout f 12 to .the horizontal, .theparkin .stiipsandroadway .surfacesmmay. .be-.horizonta1;..asi shown. in Rigs-.4

. :withgeachnppemlsyel parking ,strlmspaced yerlotioally. from; the. adjacent 'lower.,-level,. parking ,-,.stri p,by. aidistance vlustenou h.sreaterZthanIthe hoightbi 'a ivehicleto Joe parkedito permit "driving .such vehicle...underithe. npperileyel strip. i If ithe .hillsideLslopeis egreaterl. than 1251 the. same hori- .zontal...arransement. pf. roadway .and. parking strip surfacesgmay. heattained with still ..greater .verticahspacing betwleen'the. upper-.. and lowerlevel parking stri s. .1ilfithehillsidelslopeiis less (than laboutllzi then. adequate. .veiitioaLspaoin lietweenltht:-....unp er-landhlowerslevelg parking .istripsriu ayl be attained fbyi. inclining lthe; plane hf ithe, roadway and. parking istiiip surfaces enough v.qso' .thattanwanglesioi at..le.as.t mourns i betweeriiithese fplanes andl the original slope ,Tof ii'lhfi-ihfllsidel -(ohthe .common i-plane-loftheproadwaywcenterlines) 1. is '3; Therextreme inclination of the roadway. and, parking'listrip surfaces ..to,..the. horizontal. will of course be "12 whenltheLj-installationshown in Figs. 3 and 4 is employed on a horizontal ground surface.

Anembodiment. oi.-the.invention in an installation for rooftop parking is shown in Fig. 5. In this modification the-building roof is *ofitypical factory saw-tooth construction by-which a-series of parallel;ilaterallysgmclinedirojof aisurfaces are defined. These roof surfaces are supported-on inclinedtrusses 35 which in.,'..t11rn are .carrie d on building frame columns "36. The saw-too'th'roof structure defines a ,znarrow surfaces. 1The. longitudinal.=centerlines of the inclined roof surfaces areshorizontalzlin a direction perpendicular to the plane of Fig. 5), and are spaced apart by the distance A approximately equal to the width of a roadway plus the length of a vehicle to be parked. The lateral inclination of these root surfaces is, as shown in Fig. 5, about 12 to a horizontal plane (indicated by the line H). The high side portion 31 of each of these inclined roof surfaces (to the right of the centerline as seen in Fig. 5) forms a roadway, and the low side portion 38 (to the left of the centerline) forms a lower-level parking strip which is about equal in width to the length of a vehicle to be parked. A horizontal access road (not shown) is built along the side of the building to give access to each of the roadways 31. A vehicle elevator or ramp (not shown) is provided to gain the access road from the ground level.

parkin mananitrmer ethe upperelerel parking Strips. 31 lareplatiorms' pluralityniof along relatively 56 i -leelongr: elativelyimarrowit l nerelevolsparking ;:.:;nla.t;ormi:3ktitsrnarrowmdimensionris :zsliewnrin .rrossrsectionsinzfigr isi'fllllilti'iollfiifmrnsrthe higlnsideredge edfliiofeeaehoimflinedi .oof .surfaoe -;throi1gh0.ut;zsuiistantially'iitsxentireilength;..::and @xtendszupwardly therefrom atzanga-ngle :ofizabout 1 .-.t2gto:the horizontal. ifrhisrupperelevel parking platformzis' Shown Fig; fizxamheingrzmade :o'f izsteelgratingsnpnortedzon beams lhandzdzrwhich toxin; ,turn'.zare::oarriedirone'columns .143- -.guard each .rrail :zis zereotedralongritheputer .aed'g i'illppfir-zleyel sparking gplatf'ormgqziiil.

covered drains 45 aresarran'gedalong theilowis'ide ssdseiofseaolr f; theegroof :surfacesetowarry away arranged .,.a1ong....the..iouteiu g. er'ainawaterrzand imeltedirsnow." 'rwindows lfi 'zmay heirprovidechimthetzverticalnectionsebetween adjoin-ingi inclined:-:;r.oofitv surfaces: ato :'..-'provide' -for iightingzfindwentiMtingiirthes triangular: spaces tdoeneath the roofzxin'scase it'zr'is';desiredr tonmake {gqtruse 'offthisgzspacejorostoragespurzposessor other- -=wise.

.,2As'ini:theipreviuusly.e'described embodimentsai'of :rzthe invention; :thec-iupperelevelirp arking ipla'tform idirectly .overliesftheilower-ilevel:parikingistripeahd is spaced therefrom bye-vertical distance aitileast as greataszthe he'ightof. a evehicleito: %be parked.

' tl'zehiolesiraregparkedtin. twozlevels,trtherebysattain- :ing:.;maximum rparkingscapaeity r'on 5 the croottop space.;..;1R.oottop:parkingrhasr .notrheretoioreibeen xattraotive f hecause- JIOOftOp sspace limited rin :area :and'rgit fhfiStbGBHiBCOhDIDiCfi/HY rimpraeticaltto rproviiiezroo'ftop parkingrfor; thexlimit'edrnumber iOf vehicles :which would Joe.zaccommnidatedausing :heretoipreaconventional'xparkingaarrangements. By:'meanss sotithegpresent .iinvention;":whiclr "approximately doubles the parking capa'citysofsrooratop spacei'the useofzsuchgspace onifacteryzbuildrings; auditorium; etc..,=;:is:=mruch":more' attractive thaxr:..her.e.tofore.. 40 .',A; :parking :pinstallation;fibuiltz" niihorizeiital gzgroundrandin whichlalliof the arkingrstrips and :roadway: surfaces :are..;themselyesttmorizontalizis shown in Bi .6. In'ihis'smodification:eachzealteranateeparallelrcroadway "lflzzandzzthedowerelevel marking: :strips "ll 9: whichiit :servesame falliiormed iiiorizontally 011.1th -;same 1eyel.. -:'I -he-. intervening ;parallel.-.-r.oadways $.50 .-are-;built2 up=.to any idfiSi-Tfid ....-height dgreatersthan .the height;..:of za vehicleeto sbe parked) above the tlowerqlevelparking strips.

. .This is zmostwreadily.accomplished bypxcavating 50.11pm the. original. ground line: L form :the

,. .lowerelevelroadways -..48-.,;and: spanking strips ;.49

wand .usingihe,.excavatedearth 1to.,- -bui1d. upnthe :lintervening .;roadw.ays -.50.to.the1 required: height.

As in the installations previously described, the

horizontal distance between centerlinesnofradja- .eent .roadwaysi :48- .and 501.15. .about. :et ual to the widthlofharoadway plus..the.Ileng th of a vehicle to be parked. To provide for, parkingalong both sides of the raised intervening roadways 50,

upper-level parking strips in the form of platforms 5| overlying the lower-level parking strips 49 are built out from the side edges of these roadways. The platforms 5! are supported at their outer edges on steel or concrete columns 52, or in any other suitable way. Guard rails 53 are provided along the length of the outer edges of the upper-level parking strips; and retaining walls 54 are employed to support the upper-level roadways 50.

Access roads running at right angles to the roadways 48 and 50 are advantageously built at a level about midway between the upper-level and lower-level parking strips, and are con- 7 nected to the roadways by short ramps; or alter- 75 natively the access roads may have an undulating L, Gratingeffective use of surface that rises from about the level of one of the alternate lower-level roadways 48 to about that of the adjacent roadway 50, and then descends again to the next lower-level roadway.

The modification'shown in Fig. 6 is more expensive to construct than the modifications pre viously described where the parking strips are arranged at anvangle of about 12, more or less, to the original ground line. It has the advantage, however, that parked vehicles are horizontal, and

the vertical height between upper-level and lower-level parking'strips is independent ofany particular degreeof slope.

. It is of course apparent'that a compromise between the horizontal construction shown in Fig. 6 and a construction using inclined parking strips, such as is-shown in Figs. 2 and 5, is possible, by using a parking strip slope that is sub- .stantially less than the value of 12 (more or less) hereinbefore mentioned but greater than zero. In such a compromise arrangement, alternate roadways will be lower than the intervening V roadways, but the vertical height between them I need'not be so great'as is required in the modification shown in Fig. 6.

The parking installation of the invention may be used with advantage for other purposes than -merely to provide for parking of unattended vehicles in'crowded shopping, oilice, or amusement centers. There is a growing development of serv-.

ices designed to accommodate motorists who remain 'within their automobiles, of which the outdoor "drive-in moving picture theater is one example. The parking installation of the invention is very well adapted to accommodate vehicles wherever such services are offered; In a drive- .in theater, for example, the new parking installation is of advantage to the theater operator because it reduces the ground area required for a theater of desired automobile capacity, and is of equal advantage to the theater patron because it provides increased parking space in close proximity to the moving picture screen.

The embodiments of the invention'specifically described herein and shown in the accompanying drawings are merely illustrative of the ways in centerllne to centerline by a distance approximately equal to the width of one roadway plus the length of a vehicle to be parked and with their centerlines lying substantially in a common plane,

each roadway being inclined laterally at an angle to said common plane, a lower-level parking strip of width approximately equal to the length of a vehicle to be parked adjoining the low side of each roadway and sloping downwardly therefrom at an angle to about 12 to said common plane, an upper-level parking strip of approximately the same width as the lower-level parking strips adjoining the high side of each roadway and sloping upwardly therefrom at an angle of about 12 to said common plane, each upper-level parking I strip directly overlying the adjacent lower-level 7 12 to the horizontaL- the high side portion of each of said surfaces forming a roadway and the low side portion thereof forming a lower-level parking strip, and along relatively narrow upperlevel parking platform adjoining the high side edge of each of said surfaces throughout substantially the entire length thereof and project- 'ing therefrom upwardly at an angle of about 12 to the horizontal, said upper-level parking platwhich the basic features of the invention may be adapted to meet the requirements of local conditions, Numerous modifications and adaptations of the invention may be made without departin from these basic features, and indeed some such modifications will be required more often than not in order to combine economy with the invention in designing each individual installation.

We claim:

1. A vehicular parking installation comprising a series of parallel roadways spaced apart from Number forms and said lower-level parking strips each being, of substantially equal Widths, and each of saidflupper-level parking platforms being supported directly above the adjacent lower-level parking strip and being spaced vertically therefrom by adistance greater than the height of a vehicle to be parked.

WILLIAM P. BROWER.

WALTERI. GADKOWSKI.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

- UNITED STATES PATENTS 7 Name 7 Date Earle Jan. 3, 1928 OTHER REFERENCES Engineering News-Record, August 19, pages 111-113. 

